• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Sugar industry stakeholders have signed a manifesto calling for the immediate implementation of a government sugar-buying program, in adherence to the declaration of the Department of Agriculture of “no sugar importation for 2026,” and the resumption of congressional investigations into the collapse of millgate prices of sugar and molasses, among other proposals.
The government-funded “Purchase and Park” program aims to temporarily reduce excess sugar inventory from the domestic market in order to stabilize sugar prices, and the retention of the program as a price stabilization mechanism, whenever needed in the future.
The signatories of manifesto include the Sugar Council, represented by CONFED, NFSP, and PANAYFED, which account for more than 50 percent of farmers’ share in national sugar production; NACUSIP, the largest umbrella organization of labor unions in the sugar industry, which counts among its members 100 percent of labor unions in sugar mills in Negros, and 90 percent of labor unions in sugar mills throughout the country.
The Sugar Industry Foundation Inc. (SIFI), which implements socio-economic programs for industry dependents; Philippine Sugar Research Institute (PHILSURIN), the industry’s research and development arm; and numerous other large unaffiliated planters, associations, and cooperatives.
In a manifesto signed by planters’ federations, industry labor unions, ARB associations and industry organizations, stakeholders also reiterated their call for the replacement of Sugar Board members that approves and signs all sugar orders authorizing the importation of refined sugar, the abuse of which is blamed for the drop in the prices of locally produced sugar.
For alleged neglect of duty, inefficiency, grave misconduct, and loss of confidence, the manifesto seeks the replacement of Sugar Board chairman, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu-Laurel, SRA head Pablo Luis Azcona, and Sugar Board Members Dave Sanson and Mitzi Mangwag.
The current practice of the SRA, according to the manifesto, allows private importers to purchase local raw sugar to relieve excess inventory, rewarding them with allocations for the importation of refined sugar, which led to over-importation, resulting in the excess inventory of refined sugar.
They claimed that as a consequence, refineries have seen less need to refine local raw sugar, causing local raw sugar inventories to swell and millgate prices to drop.*
